ller
ones, thrown up by the recent pressure into ten thousand various shapes,
and presenting high and sharp angular masses at every other step. The
men compared it to a stone-mason's yard, which, except that the stones
were of ten times the usual dimensions, it indeed very much resembled.
The only inducement to set out over such a road was the certainty that
floes and fields lay beyond it, and the hope that they were not _far_
beyond it. In this respect, indeed, I considered our present easterly
position as a probable advantage, since the ice was much less likely to
have been disturbed to any great extent northward in this meridian than
to the westward clear of the land, where every southerly breeze was sure
to be making havoc among it. Another very important advantage in setting
off on this meridian appeared to me to be, that, the land of Spitzbergen
lying immediately over against the ice, the latter could never drift so
much or so fast to the southward as it might farther to the westward.

Upon these grounds it was that I was anxious to make an attempt, at
least, as soon as our arrangements could be completed; and the officers
being of the same opinion as myself, we hoisted out the boats early in
the morning of the 27th, and, having put the things into one of them,
endeavoured, by way of experiment, to get her to a little distance from
the ship. Such however, were the irregularities of the ice, that, even
with the assistance of an additional party of men, it was obvious that
we could not have gained a single mile in a day, and, what was still
more important, not without almost certain and serious injury to the
boats by their striking against the angular masses. Under these
circumstances, it was but too evident to every one that it would have
been highly imprudent to persist in setting out, since, if the ice,
after all, should clear away, even in a week, so as to allow us to get a
few miles nearer the main body, time would be ultimately saved by our
delay, to say nothing of the wear and tear, and expense of our
provisions. I was, therefore, very reluctantly compelled to yield to
this necessity, and to order the things to be got on board again.

Immediately after we had, on the 27th, proved experimentally the extreme
difficulty of transporting our boats and stores over the ice which now
surrounded us, I made up my mind to the very great probability there
seemed to be of the necessity of adopting such alterations in our